As a spiritual person, I often look to the skies in wonder. A dear friend of mine is a Seccular, while I am Christian. Yet, we both find ourselves in the same level of understanding when we both pull telescopes out for the evening. Though she and I both have differnt spiritual beliefs reguarding the order and the purpose of our Universe, we both end up looking at each other after a night of observing, and wondering how and why it all came to be. When the question of how comes up, she has far more to offer me than I do. When the question of why shows itself, I often have insights which make sense to her. We both see in the Cosmos a perfectly balanced system which must function as a whole and in only one way in order for life on Earth to be possible. How it came to be is still an open question. Why it exists is a question perhaps no one will be able to answer with certanty. At the end of the evening, we both pack up our gear and quietly drive back to the city, both wondering if what we believe is the absolute truth... my closeup views of the moon itched in her mind, her telescopes splenderous view of the Orion Complex burned in mine.
One sure thing about how the universe came to be is that it will be learned by science, not the bible . The only two religion s the would survive an alien visit would be Buddhism and Hinduism.
Spirituality will survive. If the aliens landed in a Christian or Muslim nation, they would be the ones lucky to survive. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! You have a lot more respect for Hinduism, with its execrable caste system, than I do. I would suggest Daoism instead. But then we're getting into philosophies that diverge farther and farther from the model of a real religion. The definition of "spirit" varies tremendously between the religious and secular communities, but with the normalization of terminology a la Jung, we all tend to agree that each of us has a spirit, whether it is the result of the evolution of our synapses or something a supreme being stuffed inside just before sewing us up. The Buddhists and Daoists and Confucianists and most certainly the Hindus would absolutely agree with that. I think that our spirits themselves and our thoughts about them will not be significantly upset by contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life. We've made the leap to forming multi-species communities with dogs, and eventually several other kinds of intelligent companion animals. It's one of the unique things that defines the human spirit, if you ask me, and it involves recognizing and relating to the spirit of the dog or cat or macaw in question. With all that practice we will be able to do the same when the Vulcans arrive, even if they actually are talking bags of methane instead of DNA with pointy ears.
I can just see it now: Human: Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior? Vulcan: (Overwhelmed with the illogic, runs away.) But back on topic, a very nice post, Xevious.
I like the Klingons' attitude. "We weren't happy with the way our gods were running things. So we killed them all."
I don't know how you would give Christianity this reputation, since it is specifically a religion of non-violence, but then again I can see how you could with how extreme the actions of some are. I could push this the other way and point out what some have done in the name of Darwin, but hey I know better. Many religious theologians have speculated on this question. Actually, the Bible speaks of other worlds created by God. I don't have a reference at the top of my head though. Consider too that Christianity has survived many times it has been distored for politics, cultural change after change, and a few thousand years of some of the World's worst history it is doubtful the religion would ever die.
I'm sorry I got off track. I didn't want this one to be a religious debate... the point I wanted to offer was that any person be they theologic or seccular, can find in observing the universe a sense of spirituality. This is Cosmology at it's purest sense.
